Death row killer Christa Pike made final request before surviving botched execution

Death row killer Christa Pike made final request before surviving botched execution Death row killer Christa Pike made a final request before her execution in Tennessee - she survived the procedure despite two lethal injections Christa Pike, the death row inmate who survived two lethal injections this week, made an unusual final request prior to the botched execution. Pike, 50, was administered with two lethal injections in Tennessee’s death chamber but somehow survived. She was rushed to hospital shortly after and remains in a critical condition. She would have been the first woman the state put to death in 200 years. Her attorneys revealed yesterday that the convicted murderer requested no men be involved in administering the lethal drug. She made the request due to her history of suffering sexual abuse, fearing being put to death by a man would be needlessly traumatic. “That was her biggest fear as the victim of sexual abuse, that she would be pinned down, prodded, poked, cut,” one of her lawyers, Stephen Ferrell, said. “What I saw was consistent with that,” another of her lawyers, Randy Spivey, said in response to a question about whether the execution team had been staffed entirely by women. The botched injection saw Pike pinned down for around an hour as staff tried to set the two IV lines that would administer the lethal chemicals and supposedly end her life. According to witnesses, the curtains separating Pike from the viewing area were closed at 7.46pm, but opened again just three minutes later at 7.49pm. Witnesses described Pike gasping and moaning as she kicked her bedsheet. One said: "Her mouth fell open a few times, and she began to loudly snore. She gasped a few times." Witnesses said the second dose of pentobarbital had been administered by 8.26pm. But Pike continued to be heard snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at 8.53pm. At that time there was an announcement to escort media witnesses out of the area. Pike was later rushed to a nearby hospital. Her lawyer Randy Spivey said on Thursday: "We don't have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment.... but we do know that she is alive right now." Pike had been on death row for the brutal murder of Colleen Slemmer in January 1995. Slemmer was killed at age 19, after being lured into an isolated area on the University of Tennessee agricultural campus. Pike was convicted alongside her boyfriend in 1996, and the court heard there was a pentagram carved into Slemmer's chest. Pike kept a bit of her skull as a souvenir. Mr Ferrell explained the drugs may have been injected into Pike’s arm muscle rather than a vein. He said Pike had tried to help her executioners in finding a vein and even said 'thank you' when they inserted the IV lines. “Pike was not just cooperative, but was trying to help instruct the people placing the IV lines where they could find [veins]. She over and over again said, ‘Please try up on my shoulder higher. Please try here, I think it will be okay,’” said the lawyer. During pleas filed for a stay of execution, Pike had previously argued that she had blown veins that would be difficult for the executioner to access, making her death extraordinarily excruciating. Her lawyers claim the failed execution amounted to "torture", and called for her death sentence to be commuted. Spivey said: “I’m haunted by last night. What I saw last night is not something that should ever, ever happen again.”